No matter what you're looking for, you can probably find it in the Bible. Many people are familiar with the more popular Bible animals, like Jonah's whale and the menagerie on Noah's ark. But there are lots of other weird creatures in the Bible that you might not have covered in Sunday School. It's sort of common knowledge at this point that those white-lady-with-wings angels that we all grew up with don't appear anywhere in the Bible. Angels are more of a culturally accepted shorthand than a straightforward adaptation of the source material. So why did artists across the centuries decide to depict the heavenly host as white-garbed, blonde-haired bird women and not the way they were described in the text?
Probably because if you saw pictures of what angels were supposed to look like, they'd haunt your nightmares. In Jewish tradition, there are ten orders of angels, and the Ophanim are considered some of the most holy. There's a lot to go into, and parts of the description come off a little like a fever dream, but essentially Ophanim are flaming gyroscopes covered in eyes, guarding God's seat of power. That's a little harder to paint on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Watch the video for more about Incredibly Bizarre Creatures The Bible Describes!
#Behemoth #Leviathan
Ophanim | 0:15
Behemoth | 1:02
Leviathan | 1:51
The first beast of Revelation | 2:54
The second beast of Revelation | 3:34
Dragons | 4:30
Cockatrice | 5:49
Unicorns | 6:39
Cherubim | 7:48
Nephilim | 9:04
Talking animals | 10:07
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